I had a good night on June 19th… Which come to think of it was almost the solstice, so let’s say this was my solstice festivity for 2008.

There is a band here in Los Angeles who call themselves ELEMENOPY. They are two guys, Joel and Nick, who play various instruments. Nick tends to play the drums, but he also plays the guitar, and he also sings. Joel tends to play the guitar, with lots of loops and effects to make it sound like many more than two people on the stage, but he also plays the bass and he also plays the drums. And he sings.

They sound great - I’ve been out to see them twice and will do it again for sure. Their songwriting is unusual both in construction and degree of heart-felt-ness. The arrangements are tight, and they’re really fun to watch! They tell you about the songs and they move around a lot and the sounds are amazing and it isn’t boring.

ELEMENOPY hosts a weekly show at the Unknown Theater, which is mainly a stage for theater-type performances - plays, and like that. It’s very cool of the Unknown Theater to let them do that, as it allows for the existence of a venue for music that might not be this week’s hip recreational sound, and without the hyper-real ambience of a club show.

Plus the stage is still set from the evening’s theater performance, so there’s always some distinct surreality to the look of things. (On the 19th of June, there was a sort of rickety stairway-looking thing that went nowhere. I wanted to see that play - got busy moving house - goddamn it.) And the cheap beer is free all night. Are you there yet?

ELEMENOPY was cool enough to give me an opening slot on June 19th 2008. I got to play in the lounge, which is really in the same room as everything else, just not in front of the bleachers. So people tend to wander around, sit at the bar, very chill. I planned a set for electric guitar and “singing,” and I convinced six of my friends plus Lady Z to come out and hang - which would never be enough to make a club happy, but nobody ever even asked me what my draw would be. I believe they actually listened to the tunes on the website and made a decision based on that.

Other than my friends, there were twenty or twenty-five people hanging around. Good bunch of folks. But would they dig it?

Next thing to happen, is it turns out Joel is down with disease and won’t be making it. No set from ELEMENOPY tonight! A big drat, especially as press was expected. Nick agreed to play some congas with me, though, and resultantly I had a BLAST! Cos as much fun as it is to play a show in the first place, it’s usually MUCH MORE FUN to play with other people.

here is a picture:

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Nick is a terrific conguerro. We played for about 35 minutes, extended jams on my tunes, and although we didn’t have time to get what I would call super-deep, we definitely got in it. Some of the tunes had to be radically rearranged on the spot - “13 Sheep” as uptempo Meters-style funk, for example - but everything worked out and I believe most of the people there sat and listened for most of our set.

A lot of the people in the room had been there for the play, or had been in it. I talked to a few of them after and found more good people than I am used to finding in a room full of strangers in Los Angeles. I look forward to seeing some of them again next time I get a free Thursday night…

(There’s more, but it gets its own post cos it’s that cool!)

**iPhoto by audient Steven Cox